My father was grounded, a very meat-and-potatoes man. He was a baker.

I wanted revenge; I wanted to dance on the graves of a few people who made me unhappy. It's a pretty infantile way to go through life - I'll show them - but I've done it, and I've got more than I ever dreamed of.

I never cling on to hope or certainty. They're the enemies of peace.

The trick is not to get too fanatical about getting the accent too accurate because then that becomes a mask. What I try to do is just painting and sketching some of the sounds without obliterating my own voice.

It created in me a yearning for all that is wide and open and expansive. Something that will never allow me to fit in in my own country, with its narrow towns and narrow roads and narrow kindnesses and narrow reprimands.

You look closely enough, you'll find that everything has a weak spot where it can break, sooner or later.

Women never really care to face the truth when their hearts are involved.